Honoring the Edmund Fitzgerald

June 8, 2024

History buffs, strong swimmers, and Gordon Lightfoot fans, listen up. We are nearing the 50th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and Jim Dreyer, an open water swimmer who has swum across all five Great Lakes, is teaming up with the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) to host a 17-stage, 411-mile relay swim from Lake Superior, where the Fitzgerald sank, to Detroit, the ship’s intended destination. Relay swimmers will pass iron ore pellets—the cargo the ship carried—on their journey. Registration for the event opens at 9am on June 10 at edmundfitzgeraldswim.org/to-participate, and each swimmer is asked to raise a minimum of $2,500 for GLSHS to help preserve the Whitefish Point Light Station. The race itself will begin on July 26 and will be the subject of a documentary film.

S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald – St. Marys River, 1975; photo by Bob Campbell